


As If The Light Was Heavy

by Birdegg



Category: The Lion King (1994)
Genre: Character Death, Gen, Life under scar, The Circle of Life, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-25 01:00:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22487416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Birdegg/pseuds/Birdegg
Summary: The Lions have lots of good things to say about Sarabi, and how brave she was.But they can't mean it, if they don't even know what bravery is themselves.A look at how Lionesses perceive the noble circle of light in the last days of their Queen.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 11





	As If The Light Was Heavy

**Author's Note:**

> I love the lion king, and I love Sarabi and I think she deserves more recognition.

Sarabi was born with her head to the sun, and died the same way. Old and respected, she lay out on pride rock and watched as the day began and she ended. Her face lifted to the sky, until the very end. If you ask the lions, this is how she lived her entire life. With pride.

If you ask the lionesses, they will grin and nod and agree, but they will not mean it. A generation from now and they will all be dead, and no one will remember any particulars of Sarabi’s time in Scar’s regime. The lions will tell you that she was said to be a noble queen who helped Simba rise to power.

The lionesses will grin and node and agree, but they will not mean it. Because they were never in her paws, but they walk in her foot prints. They know the things the others never will. What it means to survive the brutal fight of power, not as the champion or defeated, but the casualty. They understand what death really is, the slow angry struggle and unsatisfying end. They do not vie for power or protect their throne; they walk with broken legs until the flies eat them away. An antelope killed is the weakest, the slowest, the eldest, the youngest. It is bitten and in pain, it struggles until fangs bear down on its neck. The circle of life is a pretty story for those who are never a part of it. There is a balance to death, but it is not a harmony.

This is why the lionesses know that Sarabi gives her share to the youngest lions. This is how they know that she keeps the growing ones away from Scar, how they know that she sent Nala away to save the girl rather than the pride. This is how they know that she killed those who begged for death, that she killed stray hyena’s and hid their bodies. That she took scratches and jeers from Scar, and that mostly she had nothing clever to say to them. That she did not hold her head up. That she fell, cheek against the stone and blood in her mouth. That every time she got up, it got harder.

Sarabi died malnourished and old. She died with aches in her bones and deafness in an ear that had been battered too many times. She died on pride rock, eyes staring into the darkness of the lands below. Watching for danger, until she died. Sarabi, the lions agree, was every example of what a queen should be. She is an example of what it means to have hope. The lioness will grin nod and agree, heads tired, fur against the light.


End file.
